Apple Dumpling… And Teatime Turtle??

Funny story: my definition & The Hubbs’ definition of dumplings vary greatly. I guess when we first moved in together, I had asked him one night if he wanted dumplings for dinner and he was a little confused. In his mind, not having told me this until very recently, dumplings are basically a rather sweet dessert pastry wrapped around a chunk of apple. I didn’t know this. To me, a dumpling is basically a dough pocket, filled with meat and steamed.

I honestly had no clue up until a few months ago what an apple dumpling was… Which brings me to Teatime Turtle. I was always Teatime Turtle. I grew up in the early-mid 80’s when the “real” Strawberry Shortcake existed. In elementary school, I didn’t really know about girl toys probably until about 4th grade or so when Cabbage Patch Kids came out.

I remember in either first or second grade, being the little Chinese girl that new nothing about popular toys at the time. The group of girls I played with at lunch time, one girl in particular, had the whole set of Strawberry Shortcake dolls along with their accompanying pets. Not having any dolls of my own, I was (in this little girl’s mind) a social outcast and if I wanted to join everyone else, the only doll I was allowed to play with was… Teatime Turtle. Yea. The turtle. Not only that, but the turtle that wasn’t allowed to talk to others or do much else than stand around so the girl that was Apple Dumpling could stand on top of me. Srsly. Tortured childhood, huh?

So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I want to make apple dumplings one day. There really was no good explanation as to why I brought up the Teatime Turtle thing, it just popped into my had along with the rest of the Strawberry Shortcake jingle. The weather has already turned incredibly chilly and warm apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream just sound good.